The Skill Level of your Fellow Players

Just because the relative skill level of a roleplayer is a subjective judgment doesn't mean it's nonexistent, and in this case, Wudgeous is asking for the personal opinions people have formed based on their own subjective perceptions. It's got nothing to do with deciding who's better than anyone else, or how they're measuring that skill--what it DOES have to do with is the person's perception of their own skill, the perception of others' skills, and which people they prefer to roleplay with.

You can still have preferences on a matter where the measurement is subjective. If you judge roleplaying skill on how much fun you can have in a roleplay, you might still want to roleplay with people who have a lot of fun and who make the roleplay fun for you, rather than people who don't interact well with the group. Perhaps you want to roleplay with people who can understand your ideas rather than those who can't, and that's how you define their skill. I don't think anyone was trying to undermine or ignore your post--if anything, we're agreeing that yes, it's a subjective measurement, because you can use only yourself as a point of reference.

But that's what the opinions are based on. Human beings make opinions based on subjective information every day, and are not hindered from having preferences just because that information is subjective.

Just my two cents. Now I'm off to write a post I should have finished two days ago, before I got distracted by extra character sheets.

Nannyhap wrote:You can still have preferences on a matter where the measurement is subjective. If you judge roleplaying skill on how much fun you can have in a roleplay, you might still want to roleplay with people who have a lot of fun and who make the roleplay fun for you, rather than people who don't interact well with the group. Perhaps you want to roleplay with people who can understand your ideas rather than those who can't, and that's how you define their skill.

This was exactly where I wanted the conversation to lead actually. The counter-strike argument lead really astray, hence I didn't answer to it.

Anyhow. In this case you want people to understand your ideas and help you have fun as much as possible, so if we call that skill level your preference will always be the highest; because that way you'll have the most fun.

You're very likely correct--my personal preference will always be to roleplay with individuals who can best understand my ideas and contribute to them in fun, interesting ways. That's not necessarily everyone's definition of skill level, however--some people do define it as writing strength and style, in which case, perhaps they don't prefer to play with those at the highest level because they find more mature writing styles (not in content, in ability; I'm not calling anyone a baby or an old man) to be denser and less fun to play along with.

I just think the argument that you shouldn't have preferences because it's such a subjective call is somewhat skewed and perhaps somewhat naive. Preferences aren't something you can really avoid as a human being. They factor into just about every decision you make in your life, even if you don't realize it. Most people, for example, prefer 'nice' people, which is an extremely subjective judgment. Likewise, 'good' food. The question at that point becomes how you personally define these things, which I think is as much the topic of this thread as the individual skill preferences of the roleplayers who've replied so far.

I agree we shouldn't argue actual preferences. So let's assume we're all on one line on what is 'good' and what is 'bad' in terms of writing.

Don't get me wrong; I think everyone can do whatever they want in their own games. I have preferences myself. However to be a successful GM you are most likely going to have to play the numbers game. Let's be honest; most games don't survive long because everyone drops. The more people you have the more you spread your chances (granted you set it up so that character deaths don't destroy the game altogether and can keep the overall morale up) and to get a lot of people (as well as boosting everyone's motivation) you have to make it accessible. The 'skill level' of 'writing' will average out the longer the game is running; usually for the better, granted everyone is having fun. Starting out by keeping certain 'skill levels' out usually creates a fairly nasty we>you atmosphere. That's exactly the kind of people it attracts in the first place. This is making it harder to recruit new people in addition to having a smaller pool to start with; directly affecting chances of survival. The more accepting people are the better the atmosphere. Good atmosphere and a good number of people (or being extremely lucky with everyone's dedication) are two essential elements for successful roleplays.

Ironically the skill of completing roleplays is positively influenced by not caring about people's 'writing' skill. In my experience, anyway.